Today this word seems to mean "anything that's too hideous and freaky to even wear on the catwalk - too freaky and garish for even Vivienne Westwood or John Galliano to contemplate showing".

It also means stuff that 5 years ago was being ignored in charity shops and jumble sales as being too frumpy and out-of-date.

Not so long ago, people would look at the shit that walked down the catwalk and just hang their mouth open cuz it was so godawful weird.(BTW - this definition almost exlusively applies to women of course. We were told, "oh the styles will be watered down before it gets to the shops for ordinary mortals to try to fucking figure out how to wear."
So by the time it got to the shops, it was almost unrecognisable as being associated with anything seen on the catwalk. But it would still be different enough to terrorise women into thinking that if they don't wear it, they won't look cool, or if they do wear it, they will look silly and foolish. What to do??

Of course, every season brings new colours and accessories, so that nothing goes with anything else you have bought in the last 6 months - oh how we just lamely accept and buy without question! Everything totally different so they make more and more money from these stupid people too dumb to figure out what the hell's going on, or if they are smart enough, to fucking apathetic to care and scared to look uncool.

This definition is quite extreme but most people will recognise this issue. Most are sensible enough to not obsess over their clothes as such, but there are many who do.

So, to get round this problem, these days the catwalk principle applies in reverse. You take any combination of items of clothing, the more they clash with each other the better (ex - red and green tartan jodpurs which gather at the waist, tucked into blue cowboy boots with gold effect, very wide crocodile belt, orange tank top with pink glitter edging, and a wooly hat in the shape of a cow's udder- I won't even get started on the accessories).

This way of dressing is in many ways a backlash to fashion fascism about what to wear with what etc. But it is becoming dangerously fashionable now meaning, "you can look like everything was thrown together by a colour blind myopic nerd, without thought or looking in a mirror, but it still has to look like constructed in a meticulous and well thought-out way but stil looks as if it was not".

Jesus.

Fashion obsessive "Oh my god I MUST find out where she got her outfit! It's so cool!"

"oh really? Where is this Salvation Army shop then? And hopefully it's very very expensive as I love paying a lot for shit that's made for nothing in sweat shops so that there is more profit for the men who design/own/run most of the fashion industry! Cool!"

FashionNoun
The prevailing style or custom, as in dress, or behavior.
Something such as garment, that is in the current mode.
Fashion is not always expensive clothes. Fashion is not what all the popular girls at school are wearing. Fashion is creating a garment and being different. Fashion is developing a style. Fashion never gets old, it just gets re-created. There is no right or wrong in fashion. Fashion trends are started//developed by looking at another culture, or more ideas after you have developed a personal style. Fashion started with our earliest designers and followed with our more popular designers. Examples. Gabrielle Coco Chanel, Ives Saint Laurent, Gucci, Dolce, Fendi, Renne Lacoste, Hermes, Mui Mui, Karl Lagerfield, Christian Dior, Gorgio Armani, Donatella Versace, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, Givenchy , Donna Karan, Anna Sui, Nicole Miller, Betsy Johnson, Marc Jacobs, and SO MANY MORE. Fashion isnt just whats in, its also whats out. Remember fashion is creating and re-creating, and its never the same. Without fashion pop-art, and pop-culture would be so much different. So dont think that fashion is just what all the cool kids wear, cause its not. Fashion never dies.

Examples. All the Fashion designers i named above.
Plus Brands.
*Miss Sixty
*Sevens for all man kind
*True Religion
*Citizens
* and remember even Wal-Mart has its designers